Eric Patrick Clapton was born on March 30th, 1945 in Ripley, Surrey. He was the illegitimate son of Patricia Molly Clapton and Edward Fryer, a Canadian soldier stationed in England. He was raised believing that his grandparents were his parents and his mother was his sister, to shield him from the stigma that illegitimacy carried with it.
Clapton grew up loving the blues of Robert Johnson, BB King and Buddy Guy. When he was 14, Clapton was given a guitar as a birthday present by his grandparents and proceeded to teach himself to play. He was expelled from art college when he was 17 for playing the guitar in class. Clapton joined a number of burgeoning British blues bands in his early years, including The Roosters and Casey Jones but his big break came in October 1963 when he was asked to replace Top Topham in British blues outfit The Yardbirds - a group that would eventually include guitar heroes Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. Clapton, who was nicknamed 'Slowhand' for his forceful string-bending guitar style, soon became the focal point of the group but he recorded only one album with them, Five Live Yardbirds. Clapton then joined John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, again recording only one album, Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, but it would come to be the spark for the blues boom of the 60s. Clapton left the Bluesbreakers in 1966 and immediately formed Cream with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce.
The two years of Cream's existence marked the high point of Clapton's career in terms of popularity and commercial success. Billed as the first rock supergroup, Cream laid down the blueprint for the kind of heavy rock that bands like Led Zeppelin would popularise the 70s. On stage Clapton was allowed to indulge his extended guitar workouts and improvisational brilliance. In the studio the band created poignant blues riffing on hits such as Sunshine Of Your Love and Strange Brew.
Cream's debut album, Fresh Cream introduced their breezy, psychedelic blueprint to the world, mixing original tunes such as Top 20 hit I Feel Free, with blues standards. Over the next six months the group became influenced by the psychedelic blues of Jimi Hendrix, evident on their next single, Strange Brew, a slow-burning piece of sinister psych-blues. The track was one of the highlights of the band's second album, Disraeli Gears, where the band truly found their voice. The album featured the euphoric Sunshine Of Your Love and the windingly psych-blues of Clapton's Tales Of Brave Ulysses. The album helped the band break the US, reaching the Top 5.
Cream's follow up double album, Wheels Of Fire was another massive commercial success, helping to establish Cream alongside The Beatles and Hendrix as one of the biggest rock acts in the world. The album consisted of one live and one studio album but despite its commercial success, it failed to garner much critical praise after the 15 min version of Howlin' Woolf's Spoonful and the 17 min drum solo on Toad led critics to level accusations of 'self-indulgence'. The band played their farewell tour in November 1968 culminating in a legendary sell-out show at the Royal Albert Hall.
Early in 1969, Clapton united with Baker, bassist Rick Grech, and Traffic's Steve Winwood to record one album as Blind Faith, another rock supergroup. Their self titled debut album topped the charts in the UK and the US but the pressure expected of a rock supergroup and a gruelling US tour, caused the band to break up a year later.
Clapton was still only 24 but fame was taking its toll and he was developing a major drug addiction. He formed his own musical collective, Derek And The Dominoes and recorded the landmark double album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. Layla was an anguished lament of unrequited love, inspired by a difficult love triangle between Clapton, his close friend George Harrison and Harrison's wife Pattie. (Clapton eventually married Pattie in 1979 and divorced in 1988). Clapton also released his debut solo album in 1970. But a planned Derek And The Dominoes second album crumbled during a US tour and because of Clapton's worsening addiction to heroin. Clapton went into seclusion undergoing a series of treatments including electro-acupuncture treatment recommended by his friend Pete Townshend of The Who. A clean and healthy Clapton re-emerged in 1974 with the album 461 Ocean Boulevard and the hit single, I Shot The Sherriff.
Some fans were disappointed by Clapton's post-rehab efforts, feeling that he had abandoned his former guitar-heavy approach in favour of a more laid-back approach. Just One Night, a galvanzing 1980 live album reminded fans of Clapton's electric blues brilliance but soon the guitarist was sliding into the depths of a serious drinking problem that hospitalized him in 1981. After beating the booze, Clapton experienced a creative resurgence, releasing a string of consistently successful solo albums including Another Ticket (1981), Money and Cigarettes (1983), Behind the Sun (1985), August (1986) and Journeyman (1989).
But fate dealt Clapton another blow when, in 1990 his three-year-old son Conor fell forty-nine floors to his death from Clapton's Manhattan high-rise apartment. Clapton channelled his grief into writing the 1992 Grammy winning ballad, Tears In Heaven, taken from his Unplugged album which would become his biggest selling solo record ever.
Two years later Clapton returned to his traditional blues roots with From The Cradle. 1998's Pilgrim album was greeted with mixed reviews but spawned a hit single with My Father's Eyes. In 2000 Clapton teamed up with his old friend BB King on the album Riding With The King, a set of blues standards. Clapton continued to look to the past with his next album, Reptile in 2001, his first solo studio set of the decade. The sleeve featured Clapton as a grinning youngster while many of the songs were interpetations of R&B hits from his youth including Ray Charles' Come Back Baby. Three years later Clapton delved further into his blues roots with the album Me and Mr. Johnson, a collection of tunes honouring the Mississippi born bluesman Robert Johnson. The album was recorded at the same time as studio sessions for his 2005 album, Back Home, a collection of blues and soul covers and original material. The album title, represented a completion of Clapton's musical odyssey as a blues journeyman. "This album closes the book on my whole journey as an itinerant musician and where I find myself now," said Clapton. "It's about coming home and staying home." At least until it's time to tour again.